Exeter High mourns loss of popular physics teacher

Huebner 'a great, great man.'

EXETER — Longtime Exeter High School physics teacher James "Jim" Huebner is being remembered by family, friends and colleagues as a man who helped shape the lives of countless students with his devotion to teaching.

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By Jeff McMenemy

seacoastonline.com

By Jeff McMenemy

Posted Jan. 7, 2014 at 2:00 AM

By Jeff McMenemy

Posted Jan. 7, 2014 at 2:00 AM

» Social News

EXETER — Longtime Exeter High School physics teacher James "Jim" Huebner is being remembered by family, friends and colleagues as a man who helped shape the lives of countless students with his devotion to teaching.

The popular teacher died on New Year's Day.

Superintendent Michael Morgan said Monday he was "blown away" by the number of people who attended a memorial service for Huebner on Sunday and the tributes they paid to the teacher who was known for wearing a bow tie to school every day.

"He was a great, great man, who was very smart and also very kind," Morgan said. "And he was always very student-focused."

Morgan said Jim Huebner's wife, Dawn Huebner, brought a collection of the teacher's bow ties to the service on Sunday and invited everyone in attendance — which included teachers, friends and former students — to take one with them.

"She said 'Jim will live on in your memory if you take a bow tie,'" Morgan said. "It was such a nice memory."

Morgan said Jim Huebner began teaching at Exeter High School in 1998-1999 and retired in 2013.

The teacher's wry self-deprecating sense of humor combined with his determination to get students interested in physics and science led many students to enter the field.

"It's hard when you're teaching, because you plant seeds but you never know about the harvest," Morgan said. "We saw and heard about the harvest on Sunday."

Dawn Huebner said Monday her husband cared deeply about his students.

"He was really interested in figuring out how to help kids connect with physics from their own experiences with what he was trying to teach," Dawn Huebner said.

For example, if a student played football, he would teach them about physics by talking about the physics of throwing a football, she said.

"I think that helped kids be able to feel that he cared about them because he took the time to find out what was happening in their lives," she said.

Dawn Huebner, a clinical psychologist, said her family was "deeply touched," by the number of former students and parents of students who attended Sunday's memorial service, but not surprised.

"He had gotten letters from students fairly regularly," Dawn Huebner said. "He was a really tough teacher, so students didn't always love him when they had him, but they recognized after the fact how well he had prepared them."

Before moving to New England, Jim Huebner taught at Lansing Catholic Central High School in Lansing, Mich., and at a school in Sylvania, Ohio.

He also went back to college and earned a degree in mechanical engineering and worked at the Ford Motor Company before returning to teaching.

"He loved teaching and he missed it," his wife said.

Jim Huebner began wearing his trademark bow ties early in his teaching career.

"Many people have told us it's kind of a physics-teacher thing," Dawn Huebner said.

She recalled how her husband had a clip-on "class bow tie," that he would use as a way to reward students, particularly students who had been struggling or were reluctant to raise their hand during class.

"So if a student raised their hand with the right answer, he would fling the bow tie across the room and the student would get to wear it the rest of the class," Dawn Huebner said. "It was pretty cool."

She invited people to take a bow tie during the memorial service, but only if they committed at some point to learning something new.

"That was very important to Jim," she said.

Her husband was in an accident during the summer before his last year of teaching, and also had been dealing with some chronic health issues before his death, she said.

Sean Kiley, Exeter High School principal, said the turnout at Sunday's memorial service was a tribute to Jim Huebner not just as a teacher, "but as a human being."

"He had a style about him for sure and he's impacted more kids than he ever knew," Kiley said Monday.

The principal said he received an e-mail on Sunday from an EHS teacher who said her son got into electrical engineering because of Jim Huebner.

"It was all because of Jim's influence," Kiley said.

Kiley said it's hard to find a credentialed physics teacher in the state of New Hampshire and to have one like Jim Huebner for so many years had a big impact on the school.

He plans to talk with Dawn Huebner about setting up a scholarship in her husband's name.

"He appealed to a lot of kids," Kiley said. "He was very well-liked."

Told that the school was considering setting up a scholarship in her husband's name, Dawn Huebner said, "I think that would be wonderful."

Kevin Joyce, a retired guidance counselor who worked for many years with Jim Huebner at the high school, said Monday the physics teacher was "a great joy to work with."

Joyce said the standing-room only crowd Sunday at the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Exeter included many former students.

"There were several students who commented on what an outstanding teacher he was and how influential he was in their life," Joyce said.

He also remembered how Jim Huebner would give up his valuable prep time during the school day if he had a student who was struggling.

"I was so impressed that he would make time during his prep period to express concerns he had about individual students, that was so meaningful to me," Joyce said.

He also talked about how Jim Huebner used his dry sense of humor to connect with students.

"He wasn't afraid to poke fun at himself and create humor at his own expense," Joyce said. "Kids really responded to that. It kind of personalized things."

Joyce reconnected with Jim Huebner during the last six months when the former physics teacher joined a men's walking group that he participated in.

"He was a real great addition to the group, the guys really enjoyed his great sense of humor," Joyce said. "We'd walk for about an hour and a half and we seemed to almost laugh the whole time."